All I Want For Christmas
by HPFchamber
Summary: I think it started at during the duel. That is when these feelings for a certain redhead started. Problem is, it's the wrong redhead.
1. Prologue

I knew that I should have said no when Molly invited me. No, not Molly, Mrs. Weasley as I need to start calling her. It is too awkward between Ron and me. I guess that the only reasons I came were so that I could spend time with Harry without us being wrapped up trying to find the Horcruxes and for Mol—Mrs. Weasley's great cooking. My parents were skiing once again and I had thought about going with them but I knew that my place was with Harry so that if anything happened I would be right there to help. My parents understood and had left me alone for Christmas. I was an adult now. I did not need them to watch over me all the time.

'_And you came for Charlie'_ drifted a thought from the back of my mind. I quickly pushed the thought away. I did not come for Charlie. That would be absurd. There is absolutely no reason for me to come for Charlie. I came purely for Harry and Mrs. Weasley's cooking. Besides the fact that I did not want to spend Christmas alone. I never had and I didn't plan to. My apartment was lonely. It was not that big but did not have a cozy homey feel. It was probably because I did not have anybody to share it with.

It was bad enough that I have to see Ron every day at the Ministry when I work but why did I decide to spend all of my lovely Christmas with Ron? I just had to find the one way to ruin the first Christmas I had experienced where I had a choice of what to do on Christmas day. Usually the only choice was spending it with my parents. But now I am an adult even in the Muggle world and I can go anywhere I want to.

My Christmas was no longer at all good. It was so awful that it just made me want to cry but I knew I could not. I am a strong young woman and I cannot cry. Especially in front of him. No, there is no reason for me not to cry in front of him. I told myself this but I do not believe it. I do not believe it for one second. He would not make fun of me if I cried in front of him. He was not that kind of guy. He was sweet and kind and the most wonderful guy on the planet but no, I am not allowed to think that way. Because I do not like him. He is merely a person that happens to be in the house but he belonged there. Not like me. That was not my place. I should have just stayed at my apartment for Christmas. The people that really cared for me would have visited me. Then I would not have to deal with the people I am uncomfortable around. Or to say, comfortable around but I am not supposed to be comfortable around them.

But I suppose that I am getting ahead of myself. I am sure that you have no idea what I am talking about. So I will tell you the beginning of the story instead of starting in the middle. This is my story. The story of a bookworm with a complicated life.


	2. Chapter 1

"Come on 'Mione," Ron begged, looking very pathetic. "Come have dinner with my family. You know they all love you. You haven't gotten to spend much time with Charlie and Bill and they are only here for a couple of weeks for Christmas before they go back to work."

"You call your mother trying to stuff my face every time I see her loving me?" I asked, teasingly.

"Yes, she loves you very much," he said and made a puppy dog face. "Come on… Please?"

I tried to resist but knew that I wouldn't just like I always couldn't. I could never resist his puppy dog face and he knew it. I held up as long as I could and I could see a flicker of doubt in his pleading eyes but before he stopped making the face I had already given in.

"All right," I said, looking at him and putting on a serious face. "But I'm only going to eat one plate of food so that I won't get sick."

"Deal," he agreed and we both knew that I would not only eat one plate, I loved Molly's cooking too much.

A pop was heard in my apartment as we Apparated to the Burrow. I stood outside on the walkway for a moment trying to regain my balance and for the sickness I felt in my stomach to pass. Before I had gotten back the balance part I was already being pulled stumbling along by Ron.

"Come on 'Mione," Ron said and looked back at me. "If we get there in time we will be able to watch the big duel thing that Bill and Charlie always have before meals at these big family get togethers. Except breakfast. They never duel before breakfast. If they dueled before breakfast somebody would end up seriously hurt. They don't have very good aim before breakfast."

Eager to watch Ron dragged me off the path to run through the snow as a shortcut to the front door. I was helpless as I had snow flung up from his feet hit me and I could feel the snow melting on my pants to be soaked up by the jean material. Looking forward to when I could get inside to the warmth and dry off I just ran shivering behind Ron. We reached the front door and burst through it without knocking.

The warmth enveloped me and I was thankful for the fire crackling in the fireplace in the other room. Smells of ham and spiced cider filled my nose and I saw that Molly was putting some of the finishing touches on dinner. My mouth began to water as I looked at the spread on the table but I had hardly any time to look at for before I could look at it Ron was pulling me towards the back door to go out in the freezing snow once again.

"Mum, are Bill and Charlie having their duel yet?" he asked as he neared the back door.

"No I don't believe so," Molly said. "They should be starting it soon. Hermione dear are you going to be staying for dinner?"

"Yes she is Mum," Ron said quickly as he pulled me out the back door.

My lungs were hit with the cold air once again and we followed the tracks over to where there were a lot of people gathered. I noticed that Harry was there with Ginny but they didn't look very comfortable around each other.

"Hermione!" Ginny cried out as she saw me. "I didn't know you were coming! It is so good to see you."

I pulled my hand out of Ron's and slowed to a walk. Ron gave me a small glare but continued to run towards his brothers. I glanced at him as he was received by his brothers but then turned my attention back to Ginny.

"Yeah, Ron got me to come," I said as I neared her.

"Did he do the puppy dog face again?" she asked, giving me an appraising look.

"Yes," I said, feeling my face grow hot in the cold winter air.

"I told you girl, you have to resist it," she said, laughing at my embarrassment. "You will learn. I just hope that you learn quickly before he gets you to buy him some Christmas gift that is completely awful. Especially something that could be used against me."

We laughed and I was glad to see my friend once again. I had not been to the Burrow in a while and I missed being able to see all of the Weasleys. Work had been keeping me so wrapped up that I only had time for the occasional small meal with Ron and I hadn't had the time for the big events that dinner were at the Burrow. I was glad that I had finally gotten some time off from work to spend with the people that I loved to spend it with. I didn't know why my boss had given me off the two weeks that he did but I knew that I was going to enjoy it.

"Come over here," George yelled from where the boys were. "We have cleared some space and the duel is about to start."

Ginny grinned at me and we ran over to where there was a circle of cleared ground to sit on. Ginny and I took seats next to each other and Ron sat down on the other side of me.

"You are going to love this," Ron said, leaning over to talk into my ear.

I had been at quite a few of the Weasley dinners but most of the dinners Charlie and Bill hadn't been there or there was only one of them there. The only one that I had seen was in the summer before my forth year with the tables in the garden. The rest of the boys took seats, leaving Bill and Charlie as the only ones left standing. I watched as they took their stances, each of them with looks of immense concentration on as they stared at their opponent and contemplated what their strategy was going to be.

I waited for something to happen but at first there were no spells being cast until I noticed that the belt holding up Charlie's pants begun to loosen. It appeared that Bill had used a wordless charm to control the belt so that it would loosen gradually and not fall off all at once. I glanced at the other people seated in the circle and none of them seemed to have noticed. I braced myself for what was coming but could not help but laugh when Charlie's pants dropped to be around his ankles revealing crimson boxers.

Laughter sounded from everyone as Charlie pulled up his pants while his face turned a red that was darker than the boxers he wore. As soon as he had belted redone his belt he whipped his wand up and started throwing spell after another at Bill. Bill responded with various shields combined with jinxes and spells of his own. Jets of light flew back and forth between them so fast that one couldn't watch the both of them. I didn't know why but I found myself watching Charlie and not paying much attention to Bill. Somehow I got the feeling that Charlie had something up his sleeve in mind for his brother other than the ordinary spells that he had been throwing around. He did not have the chance to show what it was though for it was when there was a Bill with purple hair, blue skin, and yellow polka dots along with a Charlie with maroon hair and pink eyes that couldn't stop dancing Molly called from the house that it was time for dinner.

Bill and Charlie bowed to each other before correcting the things that had been done to their body. With a smile and a laugh our whole group started to trudge through the snow to the warmth of the house. We piled into the house and filled up all of the seats at the table. I had been at the tail end of the group and by the time that I got inside there were no seats available except for the one that was in between Ron and Charlie. I took it, noticing that Ron was waiting for me to sit down to start eating. I smiled at him and began loading up my plate with Molly's delicious food. As I started to eat I listened to the conversations going on around me. They ranged from conversations about absolutely nothing to the Ministry. I noticed the subject change from the Ministry to the duel that had just taken place outside. I didn't pay attention to what was being said since I had just watched it and was startled when I heard my name mentioned.

"What?" I asked, looking around to see who had said my name.

"I asked you if you enjoyed watching the duel," Charlie said from beside me. "Ron mentioned that this was your first one where both of us weren't using tables."

"Oh," I said, feeling slight pink tinge of a blush rise to my cheeks. "Yes, I did enjoy watching it. I always love to watch people duel when I know that there isn't a matter of life or death. Duels when people are just having fun are very interesting to watch."

"Or is it really a matter of life and death?" Charlie asked with a wink. "You know those sibling rivalries. I have just hated Bill since the moment I saw him."

"Sure you did Charlie," I said, smiling as I took note that his humorous side had a similarity to that of Fred and George's.

He just smiled at me and turned back to his conversation with Bill. I sat there picking at my food and wondering why Charlie had decided to ask me whether I had enjoyed watching him and his brother. I figured that it must just be because I am the girlfriend of the little brother and turned back to my food. I couldn't get the image of Charlie out of my head but went through the rest of the meal without being required to speak to him again.


End file.
